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| Hiking | 3.94 Miles |
1,217 AEG |
| | Hiking | 3.94 Miles | 2 Hrs 18 Mns | | 1.78 mph |
| 1,217 ft AEG | 5 Mns Break | | | |
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| no partners | | My last hike of this trip was to South Tent Mountain (elevation of 11,285 feet and prominence of 3,365 feet), the highpoint of Sanpete County.
I did this hike after hiking up to East Benchmark earlier in the day. The shortest way to get to this TH from the East Benchmark would have come in from the north, and I had read some negative reports about road conditions coming in from that direction. So I instead drove back through Fairview and then down to Ephraim. From Ephraim I took Ephraim Canyon Road and then Skyline Drive to my parking spot for South Tent. Ephraim Canyon Road starts out paved and then switches to a well graded gravel road. Skyline Drive was a decent road, although there were some sections with some bedrock in the road -- clearance was not an issue but there is always a chance of cutting a tire on a rocky road. Fortunately I made it without incident.
As for the hike, I wound up hiking up an old jeep road almost to North Tent Mountain. Instead of going to North Tent once I got on a ridgeline just south of North Tent, I took a social trail that mostly followed the ridgeline on the way to South Tent Mountain. Along the way I had to hike up and down a false summit, which added some elevation gain to the hike.
I made my way up to South Tent, and after enjoying the views I headed back the way that I came. However, I wasn't thrilled with having to once again climb up and down the false summit, so I decided just to descend offtrail down the SE side of the false summit and make my way back to where I parked. The descent was a bit steep in places, but I took my time and made it down to a creek that topo maps call "Beck's Ditch". There was a berm alongside the ditch, and I walked on the berm most of the way back.
There were some decent views on this hike, but the route I took was not very efficient in terms of losing elevation only to have to regain it. If I were to do this hike again, I would take FR 0054 off of Skyline Dr (just before my parking spot), and drive toward the base of the saddle just north of South Tent Mountain and see about just busting up the slope to the saddle. The going might be steep, but doing the hike that way would be shorter with less elevation gain than what I did. |
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Wildflowers Observation Light
There were a few wildflowers, but they weren't nearly as impressive as other hikes that I did on this trip. |
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| Civilization is a nice place to visit but I wouldn't want to live there |
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